Questions and answers

This last week has been pretty darn good, starting off with Wednesday. We planned to do some service to help the English Elders in our complex with an investigator who was moving to Escondido, a few miles north. We showed up, and it turns out that they had gotten the majority of it done the day before, so we mostly just swept and cleaned until there wasn't much more to clean. After that, we went to the Stake Center for interviews with President S. Elder M and I went to the gym and played with the S kids, since they were off from school for the week. We played some soccer and basketball, and then we went and sat in the lounge to wait for our interviews. The kids proceeded to ask me to imitate every other cartoon character in existence, and this went on for a good 30-45 minutes, as Elder M had a long list of questions to ask President. When it was finally my turn, (and I was the last to go before the Zone Leaders), I sat down and President shlumped in his seat. He looked pretty tired and worn out. He asked if I had heard all of the undercurrents about the zone leaders, (i.e. gossip and backtalk), and I said yes. We talked a bit about that, and I told him that I didn't have anything to say, because I remembered President Uchtdorf's talk about the dandelion's, and I felt that his talk was a call to me for repentance. After chatting a bit more, we finished the interview. The interview probably lasted less than 5 minutes, in stark contrast with my companion's. After that, we spent the day working.

Thursday was full of stuff, as we went and started off the day with a bunch of running around trying to get some errands run. We then went to visit I, and he came outside and sat with us in some lawn chairs. He then proceeded to pull out a list of questions that he had written up for our visit. The questions that he asked us ranged from these several questions: In whom do you believe? How is your church organized? Why are the units called "stakes"? What do you believe happens after death? How do you measure salvation? What are the requirements for baptism, and how can one prepare himself to be baptized? After asking us all of these questions, we went to the scriptures to answer each question, and the Spirit was very strong. He seemed to like our answers, and proceeded to invite himself to church this upcoming Sunday (the 19th). After that we went to visit some less-active members, and found out that the brother had walked all the way to the normal chapel to see General Conference, and it turns out that the broadcast was in the stake center. So he missed the sessions, but we're planning on helping him to find a way to watch the sessions at home in our next visit.

Friday was pretty slow. We went and had lunch with some less-active members and their non-member friends, and while eating, talked about vicarious work for the dead, and shared Elder Bednar's story about his kids with the band-aids and ointment. The non-member friends seemed to really like Elder Bednar's story, and we're hoping that they now understand why we do missionary work. We then went and got our car's oil changed at a garage owned by a member from Iran, and waited in the front office for about an hour. We then went and tried to contact a few referrals, but they weren't home, and finished the night off pretty slow.

Saturday, we went and had breakfast with a member of the branch. He made us these interesting tacos using soy beans for the refried beans instead of the normal stuff. It didn't really sit well in my stomach, so it festered a bit for the rest of the day. We went and tried to visit F, but he wasn't home again. We're not quite sure what's happened, but he's disappeared. We even had his friend, Hno. Z, the Elders Quorum president, to go give him a ride to church. Hno. Z showed up to church alone, so we're not sure what happened there. For the rest of Saturday, we went around contacting until about 6:00, where we had dinner with some members down in Penasquitos. We helped prepare dinner, and talked to them about their week. They shared some miracles that they'd seen that week, and the spirit was strong. Then the sister missionaries who cover that ward showed up, and started getting on our case for visiting their members. We shared a quick message, and left. We then took some meds over to the sisters since they were sick, and turned in for the night.

For Sunday, everything went pretty normally. We showed up to church for branch council, talked about the work and how it's going, etc., etc. After that, we went and took a nap at the apartment, and went back to church. Hno. Z, as previously mentioned, showed up alone to church, so we sat there wondering about what had happened to F. During church, we found out that a new member had moved into our area, and that he was a returned missionary. Now, that's a pretty darn rare thing for a Spanish branch, so we're pretty excited to visit him this Thursday. Other than that, Sunday just went by with contacting and trying to find people at home. We found out that the movie theaters showing "Meet the Mormons" here in San Diego were pretty well sold out both Friday and Saturday, but we have yet to hear about Sunday, (for obvious reasons).

Yesterday, we went to the doctor for Elder M. I gave him an ultimatum that he would have to talk to the mission nurse about his sudden weight loss, and he took it up. So, she told us to visit this doctor in Mission Valley. We went and visited, got the pleasantries taken care of, and at the end, the doctor just gave Elder M a prescription for some medicine to help regulate his digestive system. We went to get some blood drawn and sampled, and headed back home. We spent the afternoon trying to contact this less-active lesbian couple that was referred to us by some other missionaries. o_o...They were busy, so we're going to see them tonight. Oh dear. After that, we went back to the members house that we visited on Saturday to wish their son a happy birthday, and gave him a Venus fly trap that we found at Walmart. While sitting there eating dinner with the parents, the same sisters showed up at the door again, and again started to get on our case about visiting their members. We didn't say anything, because the members actually invited us to the birthday party. We just kind of looked at each other and smirked. It was also pretty funny, because neither of the members were very happy that the sisters were there. We had some dessert, and headed home.

And that's the week. Tonight, we're going on exchanges with the zone leaders, so we'll see how that goes. I'll be going English for a day, which will be really weird, and Elder M will have an English Elder with him for the day. I'll let you know how that goes. OOH. Also, thanks for the birthday package and goodies. I'm still enjoying them. Thanks for the jazz music. It was exactly what I needed.

I hope you all have a great week!

-Love, Elder Crook